David J. Farber, a beloved and influential professor of computer networks, passed away on February 7th in Tokyo at the age of 91. Often hailed as the “grandfather of the internet,” his legacy is deeply intertwined with the groundbreaking work of the students he mentored.
His son, Emanuel, indicated that heart failure was the probable cause. Professor Farber had been a distinguished faculty member at Keio University in Tokyo since 2018.
Professor Farber began his career at Bell Laboratories in the mid-1950s, a time when computers operated largely in isolation. Communication between them was primitive, often limited to Teletype or punch card exchanges within the same building.
Through his pioneering efforts and guiding vision, the worlds of communication and computation converged, giving rise to the internet – the robust fabric that now connects global society. The New York Times fittingly recognized him as “an early architect” of this transformative creation.
Transitioning into academia, Professor Farber earned his enduring nickname by inspiring and guiding a generation of students who would become known as the architects of the Internet Protocol (IP). These protocols form the fundamental “rules of the virtual road,” dictating how computers exchange data packets, locate each other, and manage communication errors online.
Many foundational principles for computer communication emerged from weekly meetings in the early 1970s between Professor Farber and his exceptionally talented Ph.D. student, Jonathan Postel, at a Southern California pancake house. Professor Farber humorously recalled, “I ended up gaining 10 pounds” from these productive sessions.
Dr. Postel’s 1974 dissertation, titled “A Graph-Model Analysis of Computer Communications Protocols,” was pivotal in shaping the early internet’s development. Another of Farber’s students from that period, Paul Mockapetris, played a crucial role in creating the Domain Name System (DNS), essentially the internet’s address book.
These and other algorithms, collaboratively developed with students and colleagues across the research community, formed the bedrock of numerous academic experimental networks. These networks collectively evolved into what we now simply call “the internet.” Even when not directly overseeing projects, Professor Farber was a tireless advocate, frequently serving on committees that successfully campaigned for federal government funding.
One of his most significant contributions was a paper co-authored with engineer Paul Baran in 1977, titled “The Convergence of Computing and Telecommunications Systems.” In this seminal work, they posited that digital computers had advanced sufficiently to manage communication tasks, paving the way for innovations like email and text messaging. They argued that computers were more than mere calculators; they were creative instruments capable of facilitating extensive human interaction.
This foresight helped secure crucial funding from the National Science Foundation, enabling the expansion of the Arpanet, a foundational precursor to the internet originally supported by the Department of Defense. Professor Farber was instrumental in organizing a project that connected hundreds of universities and research laboratories using these developing Internet Protocols.
Reflecting on that era, he shared in an interview with Keio University that “It was the day when all the universities in the U.S. suddenly had computer science departments, but the researchers were scattered, and you couldn’t do research unless you could talk to each other. But if you were on the Arpanet, you could communicate with people. The idea was to supply every computer science department in the U.S. with the capability of talking to each other at least with emails, and hopefully more.”
Throughout the 1980s, this burgeoning network expanded, known by various names such as CSNet, NSFNET, and NREN. Initially, “internet” described the ambitious project of interconnecting smaller networks using a unified set of protocols. As commercial entities expressed interest, Congress enacted legislation in 1991, officially opening the network for non-academic use.
“I don’t think anyone in the early days thought there was going to be a commercial application for what they were building,” Professor Farber candidly shared. “It’s a research project.”
A striking photograph from 2020 shows Professor Farber, a man who nurtured his passion for electronics from his boyhood in Jersey City, N.J.
Born on April 17, 1934, in Jersey City, N.J., David Jack Farber was the sole son of Harry, a spice trade foreman, and Genevieve (Miller) Farber, a dedicated homemaker.
After World War II, young David quickly developed a keen interest in electronics. He often recounted trips to New York City at just 12 years old, eagerly exploring surplus stores brimming with radios, radar sets, and other war-era circuitry. It was there that he began honing his skills, building his own radios.
Following high school, he pursued higher education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., earning a general engineering degree in 1956 and a master’s in mathematics in 1961.
In 1965, he married Gloria Gioumousis, who passed away in 2010. He is survived by his son Emanuel and two grandchildren, and was preceded in death by another son, Joseph, in 2006.
After his studies at Stevens, Professor Farber spent 11 years at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. His work there included groundbreaking projects like replacing mechanical phone switch relays with transistors and developing SNOBOL, an innovative language for text processing.
The late 1960s saw him join the RAND Corporation in Southern California, an environment he often described as exceptionally experimental and creative. During his time there, he recalled contributing to at least eight computer languages, all building upon his earlier work with SNOBOL.
His academic career soon began, with teaching roles at the University of California, Irvine, followed by positions at the University of Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, before he ultimately joined Keio University.
As the online world expanded beyond research labs, Professor Farber dedicated himself to shaping public policy. During breaks from teaching, he served in Washington D.C., notably as chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission from 2000 to 2001.
Recognized for his warm demeanor, he was a sought-after speaker and served on the boards of prominent organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Internet Society.
Professor Farber often remarked that while connecting computers was a technical task, the true challenge lay in optimizing human interaction. He once established a vast network of approximately 25,000 internet users through a mailing list affectionately known as I.P., for “interesting people.”
In 1998, The Times noted the list’s “devoted following among the digerati, as well as less technological types,” recognizing that it granted him “unrivaled, if unofficial, influence as a voice of the internet.”
Even at the time of his passing, the list remained active, with many subscribers considering his mailings a prime source for insights into evolving internet regulations and public policy discussions.
Those who knew Professor Farber consistently emphasize that throughout all his technological pursuits, he steadfastly prioritized the human element.
His son, Emanuel, highlighted this, stating, “There’s a lot of working with people that goes into a technical project. A lot of this wasn’t tinkering in the lab. It’s writing proposals. Without someone doing that and without someone knowing the people selecting the project, it doesn’t happen. Through all of this talking with people, these projects happen, and it becomes an internet.”